Brinkmanship in Egypt

The assumption of sweeping powers by President Mohammed Morsi of Egypt on November 22 has triggered widespread protests that are sharpening divisions in this North African country of ancient fame and modern underachievement. On the one hand is the Freedom and Justice Party, which consists of the Muslim Brotherhood, and on the other hand are liberals, leftists and Coptic Christians who form a rainbow coalition of opposition groups. The controversial powers assumed by Morsi preclude the Supreme Constitutional Court from challenging his decisions.

In effect after gaining presidential powers, and with the parliament still dissolved and legislative powers inhering in the presidency, Morsi has now with the new decree also assumed judicial powers. This has prompted many respected opposition politicians, including Mohammed ElBaradei, former United Nations nuclear watchdog chief, and ex-Arab League chief Amr Mussa, to suggest that Morsi had become Egypt’s new pharaoh. Morsi on the other hand claimed he needed the wide powers to safeguard the revolution, retry Mubarak loyalists accused of murder, and guarantee that the transition to democracy would be on course and the new draft constitution concluded and subjected to a referendum.

Recall that in February 2011, the military command had enacted an edict dissolving the constitution and parliament. But after Morsi assumed office in 2012, he immediately and summarily revoked the dissolution and ordered the parliament back to session. The order, however, led to a politico-judicial crisis requiring the intervention of the Constitutional Court, most of which members were appointed during the Hosni Mubarak era. The Court ruled that Morsi acted outside the confines of his powers. With this background in mind, Morsi’s supporters have argued that the Court was again poised to bring the sledgehammer down on the Constituent Assembly that was drafting the new constitution. This was because leftists, secularists and Christians had boycotted sittings due to what they observed was a draft constitution that looked even more Islamic than the suspended 1971 constitution.

In at least 13 of the provisions in the new draft constitution, there is little doubt that if passed in a referendum, Egypt would become more Islamic than it had been under the 1971 constitution. Does this amount to a betrayal of the January 25, 2011 revolution? Liberals, leftists and Christians think so. The Muslim Brotherhood says no. Will the divisions heal soon? That will depend on many factors. Already, the judiciary, which is beginning to bear the brunt of the illiberal tendencies of the Muslim Brotherhood, is on strike to protest the ouster of court powers. What is certain is that the manner Morsi has gone about “protecting the revolution” has rankled with many groups in Egypt and raised suspicion about the ultimate goals of the Muslim Brotherhood. Work on the draft constitution was supposed to be concluded in January. But because of widening divisions in the Constituent Assembly and the boycott by many groups, the work was cut short and hastily and perhaps shoddily concluded last Thursday.

If Morsi hopes to ensure a smooth transition for Egypt and obviate the protests and counter-protests rocking Egypt, he will have to begin to act like a statesman rather than leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. He must recognise and respect Egypt’s sectarian pastiche and focus on the goals of delivering prosperity to a people currently dependent on sizable foreign aid, and enthroning a stable and progressive country, albeit with a dose of Islamic flavour. He cannot afford to forget that he narrowly won the June presidential poll with 51.73 percent after a run-off, and that those opposed to his party’s non-secular platform are nearly as many as those in favour. He cannot also afford the brusqueness his government now seems noted for, or the brinkmanship the Muslim Brotherhood is foisting on so tentative and vulnerable a polity. It would be a shame if the Arab Spring were to flounder in, of all places, Egypt, due to his excesses and especially the promulgation of judicial and constitutional measures that are apparently needless and avoidable.